Various protective devices have been suggested for protecting the terminals of an electrical device from accidentally causing shock to a person who inadvertantly touches the exposed terminals. For example, a snap on type of protector is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,279, issued to Shigehara on May 31, 1977. Another such protective shield for a terminal block is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,564,485, issued to Cull, et al. on Feb. 16, 1971. A still different type of terminal shield is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,467,768, issued to Shorey on Sept. 16, 1969. A still further type of terminal protection device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,044, issued to Davis on Nov. 15, 1983.
A disadvantage of terminal protectors of the prior art, as for example the disclosures of the above-mentioned United States patents, is that the terminal protectors do not provide easy access to the terminals once the protectors are installed. In many instances, the terminal protector must be physically removed from the electrical terminals which it protects in order for a technician to service the terminals, and this aspect is disadvantageous because of the tendancy of technicians to discard the terminal protector once it is removed. A technician may discard the terminal protector in order to gain easier access on subsequent service operations to the terminals.
Thus, a long standing problem in safety design of terminal protective shields has been to provide a shield which both prevents accidental contact by a person with terminals having high voltage applied thereto, and at the same time providing easy access to the terminals so that a technician may, for example, check the voltage applied to the terminals during trouble shooting operations, check the torque of bolts holding wires to the terminals, and perform other routine maintenance service operations to the terminals.